Thinking of adding cooking to your curriculum this year? Read below for successful cooking in the classroom tips, plus discover the benefits for your students. It can be daunting to think of cooking with 15 – 20 children.
With the following suggestions and a little organization, cooking can be an easy learning experience for all.
1. Keep it simple!
Forget about complicated recipes or about having to make every cooking project look like an animal or something fun. The process of preparing and cooking food fascinates children, not the final outcome.
2. Kids like to make their own thing
Choose a simple item where each child gets to either completely make or contributes to the finished product. Don’t worry if they don’t like the taste when it’s finished.
Suggestions: baking powder biscuits, pumpkin muffins, apple tarts, gingerbread cookie, cinnamon buns, a mini pizza, preparing a simple wrap, bagel or sandwich, a baked stuffed potato or apple.
3. Planning for success
Smaller groups – Smaller group sizes mean more opportunities for each child to play a larger part in the cooking experience.
One way to plan for this, is to send a volunteer form (check school policies first) home early in the school year and make cooking one of the volunteer categories. If no one is interested in specifically helping with cooking in the classroom, a volunteer may help with one group of children who are participating with a block, puzzle and/or other uncomplicated learning activity, while you cook with the other children. Other volunteers don’t mind organizing the ingredients and utensils, they just don’t feel confident to work with the children.
Ask your volunteer to come in a bit early to make them aware of the cooking process, safety issues, or their responsibilities before the class starts.
Safety – It’s a good idea to use a volunteer to go to the staff room to put things in or take things out of the oven. Make the experience easy by keeping the actual hot cooking experiences out of the classroom.
For more tips for appreciating and working with parents, check out this page.
Exploration Time – If you are going to be using a new item during your cooking time, such as a rotary beater or an apple corer, provide time for the children to explore and play with these tools before the actual cooking day.
4. Prepare name labels
Have larger printed name labels ready to place beside each student’s effort. This helps with personal hygiene as each student eats only his/her own creation. When printed on card, they are fine in the oven.
Student Benefits of Cooking in the Classroom
Here are a few ways that cooking benefits your students.
It provides them with opportunities:
- to follow directions (use chart paper with an easy step-by-step and simple pictures)
- to sequence activities
- to follow ordinal language (first we put…, second we mix…, third…).
- to use math and science vocabulary
- to ask questions
- to investigate their thinking and problem solve
- to gain confidence in skills and abilities
- to work with others
When cooking with children, ask questions and encourage kids to ask questions…
- What did you notice when…?
- Why do you think the dough formed bubbles?
- What happened to the sugar when we stirred in the hot water?
- How did the biscuits change?
- Why did the biscuits puff up in the oven?
- How did the dough change when…?
Children experience quantities and fractions…
- A third of the butter is for the cookies
- Fill the cup to the 100 grams
- Use half of the apple
- Cut the bread into quarters
- Roll your dough into a square
Expand vocabulary…
As children participate in the experiences above, they hear the language of cooking, math, and science.
- Batter, ingredients, recipe, liquids, solids
- Peeling, mashing, measuring, pressing, cracking
- Shaking, mixing, beating, chopping, spreading, kneading, pounding, stirring
- Read books related to the cooking experience to expand vocabulary
- Introduce new cooking vocabulary by preparing food from different countries represented by your students
Tip! Relax and enjoy the cooking activity and do not worry about the finished products. As mentioned above, the kids enjoy the process.
Hygiene and Safety…
Of course, know about all food allergies your students may have. Avoid using raw egg and meat products.
Teach a “getting ready to cook hygiene” routine that includes the importance of washing hands, not sneezing near food and keeping hands away from faces, not picking noses or scratching ears, etc.. Make it fun with puppets.
Eat all food in the classroom when it’s finished and avoid sending leftovers home.
Using Everyday Things
Most of what you need to create simple cooking opportunities with your students is readily available everyday things, either to borrow from your own home or from parents, or easily found in the school staff room.
You’ll be amazed at how much parents contribute when you send home an, “Our Classroom Needs…” type of note.
A classroom cooking kit…
Some teachers like to keep a basic supply box for cooking in the classroom. If you add to it as the year progresses, it will be complete for the following year.
It could contain:
- a plastic mat for each child,
- a couple of mixing bowls,
- measuring cups and spoons
- spoons for stirring,
- a can opener,
- a few cookie sheets and a rack
- a rotary beater
- a knife
- paper towels
- small containers of baking powder, baking soda, sugar, flour, salt
Many items are easily found at a thrift shop or from parents’ contributions.
For more ideas for easy teaching with everyday things, you may like my e-book, Challenging Children to Investigate With Everyday Things.
The e-book provides you with the resources to present a new science and math investigation for each week of the year, using simple and affordable everyday materials such as rocks, feathers, fruit, string and branches. If you’re interested, it’s available here…
